Crafting Is Broken.

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Why does it cost legendary materials to craft epic gear, epic materials to craft rare gear, and rare materials to craft uncommon gear? And while I'm on that issue, why does it cost more to upgrade a weapon than it does to craft the very same weapon? It would cost me less to craft a legendary handgun than it would for me to upgrade the very same handgun that I already own to that same level of proficiency. It seems like your developers did this to put an artificial block on people trying to upgrade, essentially forcing them into dismantling older weapons, even if they are legendary, so that they can use the mats to simply craft a new one. It doesn't make any sense. What's the point of the Upgrade system, then? None of this makes very much sense to me, and every YouTuber that I've seen that's specced into Crafting has regretted it. They've all come to the same conclusion: it's pointless.

It's pointless because it was made unnecessarily expensive, compounded by the following facts:

Loot ─ The game drops a ridiculous amount of weapons.
Combat ─ Even common, white weapons are perfectly capable of killing enemies without issue on the hardest difficulty setting.

So my question is, what's the point of crafting if it's been made entirely too easy not to and entirely to difficult to bother? It's just a poorly balanced ecosystem, and after reading the latest investor call, I'm not even sure if CDPR are aware, or even care that this game is broken in fundamental ways. All I heard is that they're working on bug fixes through February, and that's that. So... superficial fixes? Major issues with the game won't be reworked? That's great..

Oh, and on a side note, why the hell does V have to look like a hobo that picked their clothes out of random trash cans across Night City, while other characters get to look incredible? It's so stupid, the loot and gear system in this game. It's like they didn't even bother. Did they not think that people would want their character to look badass, even if you can't see yourself most of the time? It's just another ridiculous part of what has turned out to be a pretty damn fun game despite so many issues.

Anyway, this is likely the best review for the game from anyone. He talks common sense as someone who's played through the entire thing. Watch on a bit and you'll get to the part where he describes perfectly how pointless crafting is.

Full investor call and TLDR here.
 
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Crafting is broken from its root: the lvl scaled item stats system. No matter how devs tune the crafting rules or looting rules, as long as that unfitting item stats system stay unchanged, nothing will get better. The cyberware feature is also corrupted by the design of the lvl scaled item stats. Shame.
 
I mainly use crafting for Cloths. That way you can keep your AC at an appropriate level and you also get to pick how you look... even if you do have to travel all over the city purchasing blueprints.

Once you have your crafting abilities upgraded you can pretty much make common items and they'll still be better than most of the stuff you pick up on the street. I think the legendary stuff is going to be more for the late game, no point in spending your legendary parts on something you're going to outgrow in 3 levels.
 
I mainly use crafting for Cloths. That way you can keep your AC at an appropriate level and you also get to pick how you look... even if you do have to travel all over the city purchasing blueprints.

Once you have your crafting abilities upgraded you can pretty much make common items and they'll still be better than most of the stuff you pick up on the street. I think the legendary stuff is going to be more for the late game, no point in spending your legendary parts on something you're going to outgrow in 3 levels.
Problem is, there really isn't much of a late game anywhere.
 
Crafting is broken from its root: the lvl scaled item stats system. No matter how devs tune the crafting rules or looting rules, as long as that unfitting item stats system stay unchanged, nothing will get better. The cyberware feature is also corrupted by the design of the lvl scaled item stats. Shame.

This is exactly right. It affects every portion of the game and upsets the entire ecosystem. Nothing is playing right together because of the imbalances in these systems. And I can't stand the scaled levels looter shooter system. It's not fitting for this kind of game, and it feels cheap.

This is something I typed in another thread, but I think it fits here:

I honestly thought that this game would have made the loot more meaningful. That you'd collect a handful of worthwhile weapons along the way from very meaningful situations (like from defeating a boss, or as a gift from a friend who left the weapon to you in the event of their untimely death), and that we'd spend the entire game meaningfully upgrading and modding the weapons in really interesting ways.

But no.. CDPR got wrapped up in the BULLSHIT looter-shooter method of gameplay and made the loot system and weapons in this game completely worthless and forgettable. Crafting would have been worth something if they didn't go all looter shooter with the game. If the game didn't drop constant fodder weapons to kill the dumbass AI fodder enemies with, then crafting those handful of very special weapons, crafting mods and augmentations for and to work with those unique and special weapons that dropped in the game would have all been a special and worthwhile endeavor.

We could get awesome named weapons with unique abilities that are moddable. Not only that, but they could have made it so only the crafting path could make mods that interact with these weapons in unique ways, unlocking hidden functionality between mod and weapon that you find over time as you level up. They could have made it so we play "the long game" so to speak with a handful of amazing weapons. Not a constant, overwhelming barrage of crap weapons that SHOULD be useless, but were made artificially worthwhile by dumbing the enemies down enough to make them useful, making the cool weapons worthless in the process.

Catch my drift?

The fact remains that this game would have been infinitely better if they didn't go the looter shooter route, and if they worked the weapons and gear you get into the storyline and side quests in meaningful ways. They could and should have made the weapon progression a very purposeful thing with an in-depth and detailed modding and crafting system.

They could have done the following, for example:

1. Made it so we have weapon archetypes: a few types of handguns, a few types of rifles, a few types of SMG's, shotguns and DMRs (designated marksman rifle)

2. The ability to craft from each one of these types, but use both found and crafted materials to create specific builds of each archetype with controlled stats and abilities based on materials used in the crafting process. You use a specific set of materials, you get a specific type of that gun with a specific set of stats. You use crafted or more easily found materials to set the stats to specific ones, and with epic and legendary weapons, you use a very rare, specific type of world drop material to determine what unique ability the weapon would have.

3. Each outcome would create a unique weapon that you can find no where else in the game.

4. We could have gotten unique weapons that we carry with us throughout the entirety of the game as drops from bosses and story encounters, but one's that could be modified, upgraded and customized in a variety of ways using the crafting system along the way. They also could have slowly introduced various mods and augmentations to us as we progressed that allow syncing with the weapon in ways unique to each one:

The weapon: Like a shotgun that shoots a cartridge full of drones (an amount of drones that could be upgraded over time with progressively better mods) that when shot into the air, the drones will follow you like a cloud, each bullet-drone seeking enemies that get too close, imbedding inside of a limb and exploding, blowing the limb off and a chunk of HP, consuming the cloud one bullet-drone at a time. But when fired directly at an enemy instead of into the air, the bullets seek the enemy, enter the body and then explode ALL AT ONCE, taking off all of their limbs and their head, killing them instantly.

The mod: This very same shotgun could have a mod slotted into it that would make the bullet-drones seek multiple enemies, blowing a limb off of each one in a room. Or, an augmentation that lets you remote control the bullet-drones as spies and remote-explosives.

See? Unique ideas. Unique weapons. It's better than the overwhelmingly mediocre looter shooter route they took. I came up with this idea in a matter of minutes. I could come up with a dozen such weapons in a single day. They could have spent their time making fewer more unique weapons and then designing a multitude of mods for the weapons (for us to find and/or to craft) to change how they behave, and augmentations for our character to interact with the weapons in unique ways.

For example, that specific shotgun only works that way with a specific set of mods and augmentations, and could do something completely different with the bullet-drones by using other mods and augmentations. Now THAT is a freaking Smart weapon, and the kind of creative design and unique weapons that this kind of game needed.

And back to point "2." The thing that determines that drone ability for any given weapon would be the "very rare, unique world drop material" used for determining the ability. You could put this mat into any type of weapon during the crafting process and it'd imbue it with that a similar drone style ability, but tailored specifically for that weapon archetype. For the shotgun, it's the cloud of drones (because shotguns shoot a mass of pellets), but with the SMG, it would do something different, and something different even still with the handgun. Etc.

I'm talking legendary weapons that gamers would talk about for years afterward. "Hey, remember that gun that shot a bullet full of nanites that would enter the bad guy and then propagate through his body and take his augmentations over, turning him temporarily into a drone that would fight for you, or if you used a different type of mod in the gun, a drone that would run toward the closest enemy and explode like a suicide bomber?"

Yeah, we needed unique, named, worthwhile weapons from bosses and story encounters like that in this game. Not a bunch of literal junk that has no meaning because you're constantly replacing those legendary weapons that you want to love, but can't, because white, common weapons replace them just an hour worth of playtime later. It doesn't create a connection between the weapons and the player. It makes you not care about your weapons like you would if they truly were legendary.

A legendary weapon would never be outdone by a common one, but in CDPR's game, they are. And it ruins the experience.

It's disappointing and lazy development on CDPR's part.
 
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i just discovered the redeeming quality for crafting. i've already found several recipes that, once you have the upgrades, it costs less upgrade components to make, than the components you get back. it's essentially free crafting and infinite eddies.

sad that an exploit is it's only redemption

w/out any points into crafting (other than the ability to craft epic items)

1 epic gash anti-personnel grenade requires 1 uncommon + 1 common. if disassembled you get 3 epic upgrades + 1 epic component + 3 rare upgrades + 3 rare components

there are several more but that's probably the best bang for your buck. it'll take a while but yeah effectively free upgrades/unlimited eddies
 
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Is it just me or are some weapons OP? I crafted an SMG and mods and the dam is over 1300 on a SMART GUN! Also, my armour mods are OP too with a rating over 2500.
 

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Am I right in thinking that I cant re-craft items to match my skill level??

I already crafted the legendary O'Five and Crash, but if I look at my crafting menu now, I can make them at a MUCH higher DPS, but I dont have the Purples anymore :<

Seems like a complete waste of resources to upgrade gear when better stuff just drops.
 

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Problem is, there really isn't much of a late game anywhere.
There is no end-game, I don't think they expected anyone would need one. It's a story that ends with your character's death, they didn't think anyone would want him to live on.
They've built a solid forty-hour game, but lots of people just want to keep going, and I don't think they were expecting that to be the case :)

[Added spoiler tags.]
 
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There is no end-game, I don't think they expected anyone would need one. It's a story that ends with your character's death, they didn't think anyone would want him to live on.
They've built a solid forty-hour game, but lots of people just want to keep going, and I don't think they were expecting that to be the case :)
In an open world game it literally makes no sense to cut all ties with your character after the story conclusion.

Edit: At the minimum I was expecting a New Game +

[Added spoiler tags in quote.]
 
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I earned millions crafting by buying drinks and cans than turning them into materials and crafting green rifles worth 900 creds each !
 
Upgrading items multiple times is WAY too expensive. Each time you upgrade it ups the cost, and the game forces you to upgrade multiple times to reach an item of your level. This gets really bad for legendary items such as Johnny Silverhands Pistol where the costs become ludicrous.
 
Upgrading items multiple times is WAY too expensive. Each time you upgrade it ups the cost, and the game forces you to upgrade multiple times to reach an item of your level. This gets really bad for legendary items such as Johnny Silverhands Pistol where the costs become ludicrous.
The work around to it is to get the blueprint for the item and just keep crafting it at higher level. But personally to me it feels like too much effort and a lame way to go about it.
 
There is no end-game, I don't think they expected anyone would need one. It's a story that ends with your character's death, they didn't think anyone would want him to live on.
They've built a solid forty-hour game, but lots of people just want to keep going, and I don't think they were expecting that to be the case :)
I've been playing for 50 hours and I'm currently in the map cleaning stage in order to finish with the character until the DLCs are released or the NG + is added. And I am clear that when I finish I am going to make another character and I will play in another way and repeat this at least 3 or 4 more times.
What can I say, the game is being a lot of fun but the city is too small for me ...

No game before has caused this effect on me.
 
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